Star Trek cloaking device Share Technology of Romulan origin, first described in 2266, that can generate an energy screen to render a target object — usually a spacecraft — relatively invisible to sensors. Due to their immense power drain, cloaking generators have usually prohibited simultaneous use of other major systems such as weaponry, shields or warp drive . Although common to Klingon ships as well since the short-lived alliance with Romulus in the 2260s, Federation vessels have agreed to forego use of cloaks under the Treaty of Algeron, except in the case of the U.S.S. Defiant , which utilizes such a device by special arrangement. Cloaking device | Memory Alpha | Fandom powered by Wikia Edit By the 23rd century , the very idea of practical invisibility was considered only theoretically possible, due to the enormous amount of power required. This was proven untrue in 2266 , when the USS Enterprise encountered a Romulan Bird-of-Prey that used the device to cross the Romulan Neutral Zone and wipe out several Earth Outpost Stations .

The Enterprise was able to defeat the Bird-of-Prey in battle, partially because the cloaked ship was still visible to tracking sensors, but there was no doubt the device itself had been a success. ( TOS : " Balance of Terror ") By 2269 , the cloaking device had spread to the Klingon Empire as well. One of the first Klingon vessels to be equipped with the device was the IKS Klothos , whose Commander, Kor , used it to great effect at the Battle of Caleb IV . The device was soon used aboard many other Klingon vessels, such as the Bird-of-Prey . ( TAS : " The Time Trap "; DS9 : " Once More Unto the Breach "; Star Trek III: The Search for Spock ) Federation encounters with cloaking technology Edit The improved Romulan cloak In 2268 , the Federation learned that the Romulans had developed a new and improved cloaking device; one that even tracking sensors could not pick up and that posed a threat to the security of the Federation. On stardate 5027.3 , Starfleet Intelligence sent the Enterprise on a covert mission across the Neutral Zone to acquire the new cloak.

The mission was a success, and Starfleet was able to procure an intact, modern Romulan cloaking device for study. The Federation also acquired a cloaking device from a captured Klingon Bird-of-Prey, dubbed the " HMS Bounty ", in 2286 . ( TOS : " The Enterprise Incident "; Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ) In 2311 , with the signing of the Treaty of Algeron , the Federation explicitly agreed not to develop or use cloaking technology. The Bajoran Provisional Government also outlawed cloaking devices, stating that the possession of such a device was highly illegal. ( TNG : " The Pegasus "; DS9 : " Profit and Loss ") Gene Roddenberry indicated in various interviews that "our heroes don't sneak around", indicating that the Federation made a conscious decision to not develop cloaking technology.

Quark's cloaking device In 2370 , Quark illegally acquired a small cloaking device that was, as he put it, "not in the best of condition", but it "will work for about fifteen minutes." Initially intending to sell it, Quark instead installed it in the central engine core of a Cardassian shuttle , piloted by Natima Lang , to help the ship escape Deep Space 9 undetected. ( DS9 : " Profit and Loss ") Following the outbreak of hostilities with the Dominion in late 2370, the Romulan Empire allowed the use of one of their own cloaks aboard the USS Defiant . Although this was originally limited to usage within the Gamma Quadrant , Captain Benjamin Sisko chose to ignore this limitation whenever it was convenient. In order to ensure that the cloak was used correctly, Sub-Commander T'Rul was assigned to the Defiant initially, during the ship's first mission with the cloak. In exchange, Starfleet had to provide all the intelligence it received on the Dominion. ( DS9 : " The Search, Part I ", " The Search, Part II ", " Visionary ") Ronald D.

Moore commented: "We wanted to throw in a line somewhere explaining that there was a follow-on agreement with the Roms that allowed us greater freedom with the cloak, but never found a comfortable place to put it." ( AOL chat , 1997 ) Prior to the Cardassians joining the Dominion in 2373 , and flushing the Klingons and Maquis out of their territory, the Klingon High Council decided to aid the Maquis in their fight against Cardassia . They provided the Maquis with thirty class-4 cloaking devices with the Klingons' understanding that they were to be used on Maquis ships. ( DS9 : " Blaze of Glory ") In 2373 , Miles O'Brien , Jadzia Dax , and Rom employed cloaking technology to hide the self-replicating minefield blocking the Bajoran wormhole . Also, the Federation equipped one of their holoships with a cloak in 2375 . ( DS9 : " Call to Arms "; Star Trek: Insurrection ) The use of a cloaking device on the holoship would seem to be a violation of the Treaty of Algeron.

A Klingon cloaking device Although quite heavy, according to Rom, Klingon cloaking devices weigh less than Romulan cloaking devices. ( DS9 : " The Emperor's New Cloak ") It was even possible for an entire planetary body to be rendered invisible. The planet Aldea was equipped with a powerful cloaking device that allowed itself to fully cloak. ( TNG : " When The Bough Breaks ") Alternate reality In the alternate reality caused by the temporal incursion of the Narada , the Federation was already bound to treaties banning cloaked weapons as early as 2259 . ( Star Trek Into Darkness , display graphic) Mechanics of a cloak Edit In order to function, a cloaking device needed to be tied into a ship's deflector shield grid. ( TOS : " The Enterprise Incident ") When activated, the cloaking device projects a cloaking field, also known as cloaking shields, around the vessel. The shield can be expanded to cloak multiple vessels. ( TNG : " Devil's Due "; VOY : " Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy ") Most vessels could not use their deflector shields when cloaked.

Ships of the Klingon D12-class , for example, were vulnerable to attack for two seconds when their shields automatically dropped as the cloaking field formed. ( TNG : " Face of the Enemy "; Star Trek Generations ) Ships like the Scimitar with more advanced cloaking technology however did not have this problem, as it had primary and secondary shields that could remain online while the ship was cloaked. ( Star Trek Nemesis ) Components Ever since the initial introduction of the cloaking device, there was an ongoing race between the development of new cloaking technologies and the development of new detection systems that could defeat them. Quantum beacon deployed Starfleet's earliest method of penetrating cloaks was developed in 2152, when Daniels provided Enterprise with 31st century quantum beacons so they could locate a Suliban stealth-cruiser. These devices also proved effective against the Romulan cloaking devices used on mines but were ineffective against the Bird-of-Prey cloaking devices.

( ENT : " Shockwave ", " Minefield ") The cloak used by the Romulan Bird-of-Prey that crossed the Neutral Zone in 2266 was less than perfect, allowing a starship to pick up a blip on its motion tracking sensors . This blip was not accurate enough for targeting of weapons and only appeared when the vessel moved, but it was enough to help the Enterprise locate the enemy vessel. By 2268, advances in Romulan technology had removed the problem, forcing Starfleet to steal a model of the new cloak. ( TOS : " Balance of Terror ", " The Enterprise Incident ") Versions of the cloak used by the Klingons in the late 23rd century also had their flaws. Cloaked D7-class battle cruisers could be detected using a metaphasic sweep . ( VOY : " Prophecy ") Energy "distortions", manifesting themselves most often as refracting visible light energy from surrounding stellar objects very near the cloaked ship's outline, appearing as a "shimmering" effect, while cloaked and prior to decloaking, could give away a cloaked ship when observed.

( Star Trek III: The Search for Spock ) In 2293 , the USS Enterprise-A developed a method of using a photon torpedo to track the plasma exhaust of a cloaked ship. ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country ) In the 24th century , the Federation protected its borders from cloaked Romulan incursion by a gravitic sensor net . In 2368 , Geordi La Forge developed a technique called the tachyon detection grid that used tachyon beams transmitted between different points to expose cloaked objects. Soon, this had been implemented on the Federation's border outposts as well as in Klingon space. ( TNG : " Redemption II ", " Face of the Enemy "; DS9 : " Apocalypse Rising ") In 2371 it was not commonly understood by Starfleet personnel that cloaked ships radiate a slight subspace variance at warp speeds. These variances typically vanished once the vessel drops out of warp. ( DS9 : " The Search, Part I ") If a cloaked ship exceeded its maximum propulsion capacity, it would not be able to fully cloak, and would appear on navigational sensors as a sensor echo.

( TNG : " Tin Man ") Using modified cloaks, a combined fleet of Romulan and Cardassian warships attempted to conduct a sneak attack on Founders' homeworld in 2371. They determined that as long as their fleet traveled under the speed of warp 6 their warp signatures would remain undetected, even while under cloak. This modification, however, did not prevent the fleet from being detected by the sensors aboard Deep Space 9 . In this case, the cloaked fleet appeared as high concentrations of tetryon particles. ( DS9 : " The Die is Cast ") Sensors aboard Deep Space 9 were also able to detect an entire nearby fleet of cloaked Klingon vessels jumping to warp as "a huge distortion wave in subspace", and Miles O'Brien was able to deduce their heading from the vector of the subspace disturbance. ( DS9 : " The Way of the Warrior ") The Dominion , as well as the Cardassians, also possessed many methods of breaking through cloaking fields, including a long-range tachyon scanner and an antiproton beam .

( DS9 : " The Search, Part I ", " Once More Unto the Breach ") However, these methods were not always effective as Thomas Riker was able to partially counteract the antiproton beam scanning method by adjusting the cloak's resonance frequency. ( DS9 : " Defiant ") Improvements in cloaking technology Edit Due to the enormous amount of power required to generate a cloaking field, there was, by and large, not enough power available to also power the weapons and shields. ( TOS : " Balance of Terror ") When the Romulan cloaking device was first installed on the USS Defiant , the ship even had to decloak to use the transporter . ( DS9 : " The Search, Part I ") However, there were several times when advances in cloaking technology rendered these tactical inefficiencies untrue. Prototype Bird-of-Prey, firing while cloaked For example, in 2293 , the Klingons developed a prototype Bird-of-Prey capable of firing photon torpedoes when cloaked. This ship, commanded by General Chang , was used to secretly attack Kronos One in such a way that it appeared the USS Enterprise-A was responsible, implicating Enterprise commanding officer James T.

Kirk in the assassination of Chancellor Gorkon . Fortunately for galactic peace, the Enterprise-A was able to deduce the existence of Chang's ship and devise a way to penetrate its cloak by tracking its plasma exhaust with new sensors for analyzing gaseous anomalies. The prototype ship was destroyed by the Enterprise-A and the USS Excelsior over Khitomer . ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country ) In the script for Star Trek VI, the development of this cloaking device is said to have cost "millions". Another advanced cloak was encountered in 2379 . The Reman warbird Scimitar employed a new type of "perfect" cloaking device that did not give off any tachyon emissions or residual antiprotons , making the Scimitar completely undetectable while cloaked. It allowed the ship to fire weapons and use shields while cloaked, as well as allow the ship to drop the cloak protecting certain quadrants of the ship without de-cloaking the entire ship at once.

The effectiveness of this technology was demonstrated when the Scimitar engaged the USS Enterprise-E , the IRW Valdore , and another warbird in the Bassen Rift , and was able to destroy one of the warbirds and cripple the other without suffering any significant damage. Only through repeated blind targeting, barrages of phasers and torpedoes, and the use of telepathic triangulation by Commander Deanna Troi , was the Enterprise-E able to overcome the Scimitar's cloak. ( Star Trek Nemesis ) In addition, the mirror universe ISS Enterprise was able to fire weapons while cloaked using a Suliban cloaking device. However, the cloak did appear to momentarily fail a few seconds after Enterprise launched torpedoes, perhaps indicating that the Imperial ship had insufficient power for simultaneous use of weapons and cloak. ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly ") In an alternate future , Klingon attack cruisers apparently had the ability to fire while cloaked, as they were able to damage the USS Pasteur before decloaking. ( TNG : " All Good Things...

") The interphase cloak Phasing cloak device The Enterprise-D decloaking in front of a Romulan warbird The Treaty of Algeron did not stop Starfleet Intelligence from secretly and illegally developing the phasing cloak , a device which not only rendered a starship invisible, but also allowed it to pass through solid matter unimpeded. The device was lost in 2358 when the testbed vessel, the USS Pegasus , was presumed destroyed by a warp core breach in a mutiny by members of the crew concerned about the legality of the test. In 2370 , the Pegasus was found not to have been destroyed and the existence of the illegal device was made public to the Romulans. ( TNG : " The Pegasus ") In the early 2360s , the Klingon Empire experimented with interphase cloaking technology but the research was abandoned due to several accidents. In 2368 the Romulans also unsuccessfully experimented with interphase cloaking technology, developing a prototype . The USS Enterprise-D had received a distress signal from the testbed vessel and Captain Picard ordered an away team sent over to assist.

During the mission, due to a malfunction in the device, Ensign Ro Laren and Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge were phase-cloaked during beam-out and rematerialized on different parts of the Enterprise. After attempting to bring them back, the crew gave up, believing them dead. Eventually, Ro and La Forge succeeded in revealing what had happened to them to the crew and Lieutenant Commander Data managed to reverse the effects of the cloak, bringing them back into phase. ( TNG : " The Next Phase ") Other cloaking device effects Edit The use of cloaking devices occasionally led to unintended effects. The cloaking device of Aldea caused significant damage to the planet 's ionosphere and ozone layer , leading to increased radiation on the surface and sterility amongst the Aldeans . ( TNG : " When The Bough Breaks ") In 2371 , chroniton particles generated by the Romulan cloaking device aboard the USS Defiant became lodged in the ship's ablative armor matrix. These particles interacted with the ship's transporter systems, resulting in the accidental transport of several officers backwards through time to early 21st century Earth .

( DS9 : " Past Tense, Part I ") In 2372 , a computer character manifesting itself as fear was offered a cloaking device as a means of keeping its program hidden from future intrusion. To the request, it replied "I already have a cloaking device, thank you anyway." The character's "cloaking device" immediately wrapped the character in a wool cloak. ( VOY : " The Thaw ") Ships utilizing cloaking devices Edit The first time that the effect of a cloaked ship was shown was in TOS : " Balance of Terror ". In that episode's revised final draft script, the effect was described as "a nebulous, undefined shimmer." There is a running discrepancy as to whether or not the mirror universe has cloaking devices. While they have been seen in early mirror episodes of DS9, the last "mirror" episode featured a plot revolving around the "fact" that the technology didm't exist in the mirror universe. There has been some controversy over the appearance of the cloaking device in Star Trek: Enterprise .

Though "Balance of Terror" makes it reasonably clear that that was the first time such a device had been encountered, early Enterprise episodes skirted very close to violating this by referring to the invisibility technology seen in ENT : " Broken Bow " and " Unexpected " as stealth technology; presumably, this was intended to be a primitive precursor to cloaking, utilizing some method other than the selective bending of light. Unfortunately, the episode " Shockwave " features several explicit references to the Suliban stealth technology as cloaking. " Minefield " further complicated the problem by showing that the Romulans had cloaking technology in the 22nd century , making some possible justifications no longer workable. Unfortunately, there is no obvious way to reconcile the discrepancies, except to force an interpretation of Spock's words ("Invisibility is theoretically possible, captain – selectively bending light. But the power cost is enormous. They may have solved that.") to mean that the Federation thought invisibility was impossible because all previous forms of cloaking had been penetrated.

Then again, Spock's notions regarding this particular matter may not represent the totality of Starfleet's expertise, as even he admits, in TOS : " The Devil in the Dark ", that he is not as qualified as Mr. Scott is when it comes to engineering. Several staff writers on Star Trek: Enterprise – among them Producer Mike Sussman – believed it was a mistake to give cloaking technology to 22nd century Romulans. Season Four showrunner and Co-Executive Producer Manny Coto decided that Romulan ships would not have cloaks in any subsequent encounters. (Information provided by Mike Sussman) In a deleted scene from Star Trek , after the Narada is disabled by the USS Kelvin 's attack in 2233 , ten Klingon Warbirds decloak and surround Nero 's ship. According to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Journal , the Romulan cloaking device was acquired by the Klingons as an exchange for several D7-class battle cruisers given to the Romulans during the Romulan-Klingon Alliance .

According to Worlds of the Federation , the Romulans developed the first cloaking technology and traded it to the Klingons in exchange for warp drive technology – an exchange which both sides bitterly regretted in the following years, when they became deadly enemies. Apocrypha Edit Several apocryphal sources, including Diane Duane 's novel The Romulan Way , also credit Romulans with the development of the first cloaking technology, and state that the Klingons acquired it in trade with the Romulans, during their tenuous alliance. In apocrypha, the discrepancy is explained in the novel The Good That Men Do . The 22nd century Birds-of-Prey were only used as testbeds for early prototype cloaking devices. After an antimatter-containment failure in one test systems, their use was abandoned and it took decades for the Romulans to develop a successful cloaking system. Star Trek Online contains a statement, made by Tiaru Jarok, that Klingons stole cloaking technology from the Romulans. "First the Klingons, now the Borg," he comments.

"Does everyone steal cloaking technology from us?" External links Star Trek cloaking device, Klingon Share Similar to the Romulan cloaking device , the Klingons received this technology from the Romulans circa 2268, when the two civilizations shared a political alliance. The Klingons outfitted many ships, particularly their Bird-of-Prey type vessels with the devices. In 2293 the Klingons tested an experimental Bird-of-Prey that could operate its weapons while cloaked. Captain Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-A and his crew were able to improvise a method to track the ship, eliminating the tactical edge that the Klingon ship would have otherwise enjoyed in starship combat. star trek - How did the Klingon race acquire cloaking technology? - Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange How did the Klingon race acquire cloaking technology? up vote 26 down vote favorite 1 I was wondering how a warrior race like the Klingons managed to acquired such an advanced technology, for the Star Trek universe, as cloaking? Even Klingons have scientists, you know.

– Brian Ortiz Jun 15 '11 at 6:39 2 @Brian Ortiz: Romulans have scientists as well, but they also acquire large amounts of tech via spying. So, what is your point? – mbx Jun 15 '11 at 6:53 11 @mbx I think Brian was addressing the inherent racism in this question. "How did Klingons manage to acquire cloaking?" Klingons are people too! When you cut them, do they not bleed? – user1027 Jun 15 '11 at 14:23 2 In the finale of Voyager, it was also a Klingon scientist that created the time machine that future Janeway used to go back and give advanced technology to the "present" Janeway in the Delta Quadrant. So just because you're tough, doesn't mean your not smart. ;) – BBlake Jun 15 '11 at 18:55 11 A better question would be why the Klingons would sneak around cloaked like Romulan cowards, instead of approaching the enemy openly? Where is the honor in that?! Of course this question would be off topic here...

:( – Dima Jun 15 '11 at 18:57 star trek - What was the purpose of banning use/development of cloaking technology in Treaty of Algeron? - Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange What was the purpose of banning use/development of cloaking technology in Treaty of Algeron? up vote 23 down vote favorite The Treaty of Algeron prohibited the development or use of cloaking technology by the Federation. This treaty was a peace treaty and use of cloaking technology in one's own space couldn't disturb peace. Plus, the Romulans already had cloaking technology, so banning it was unfair for the Federation. So, why was this ban introduced? Another thing: There were many things to ban, but why cloaking technology? 3 Yea, this is a good question. What did the Federation get out of the this treaty?

– Xantec Mar 26 '12 at 18:11 @Xantec Following the memory-alpha link leads to the Tomed Incident which says the Treaty of Algeron "led to the withdrawal of the Romulan government from interstellar affairs until 2364" – shufler Mar 26 '12 at 19:51 There are plenty of peace treaties in actual human history up to today that restrict technology development by one or more signatories. It's hard to say what the Federation got in return, whether that clause was a precondition of the Romulans, etc. – John Feltz Dec 18 '16 at 23:42 up vote 19 down vote There was a war waging. While trying to establish the basis of the Federation Earth could not lead a war and tell everyone "We're peaceful" with a straight face. I'm also pretty sure the Vulcans were not too fond of that, either. Mankind was also very young to the Galactic society, I'm sure they didn't like they state with the Romulans.

Also don't forget that Earth just outgrew war, and most people most likely did not want to bring 'bad habits' to the stars. Why the cloaking device was banned is clear. The cloaking device is mostly an offensive technology, you only need a cloak if you want to surprise someone, if you want to surprise someone, you need to shoot first. Additionally the Romulans had that advantage on their side and did not want the Earth to gain that advantage and maybe kick their a...stonishing large ears. Of course does a cloaking device also have defensive capabilities, but those are very limited. You always have to ask: Why would that guy want to be invisible? Guarding a border with cloaked ships is only good if you want to surprise the enemy in case that it attacks, which means it's again held back for offensive use in the end. You could also just hide their ships to minify possible dangerous situations, but that doesn't really fit well with the motto of the Federation. It can be basically summed up like this: We're friends unless we screw up or you screw up...and if you develop offensive technology X we'll go all rampage on your foreyard.

+1 for the summary – shufler Mar 26 '12 at 22:32 3 Couldn't a shield also be used defensively. "Here comes those really nasty aliens, how can I possibly hide from them?!" – AidanO Mar 27 '12 at 8:05 @AidanO: Of course, but the Earth/Federation is not exactly the "Uh-huh, here it comes, let's hide" type of people. For a faction which is designated to peace, diplomacy and research there are very limited usages for a cloaking device, at least none I can think of. – Bobby Mar 27 '12 at 17:23 Cloaking technology would also be useful in avoiding interference with not-quite-ready cultures while still allowing monitoring (and possibly deflecting the odd asteroid or comet). Cloaked mines would also be a largely defensive use of the technology (Yes, a minefield can be used to "surround" an enemy or as a death trap to be driven into or to make the enemy's home territory unsafe [invade, place mines, leave], but like walls they are often viewed as defensive). – Paul A.

Clayton May 15 '13 at 14:07 1 @AidanO I'd imagine the shield argument is easier to make, since it also protects against asteroids and whatnot. Also, presumably the Federation already had shields, whereas they did not have cloaking tech. The Romulans could argue the Federation shouldn't develop a new offensive tech, but they could hardly demand that they give up one already in widespread use. Just as nowadays we try to ban nations from creating nuclear weapons, but don't try to take away the anti-air missiles they already have. – David John Welsh May 15 '13 at 14:37 up vote 0 down vote You guys are forgetting something here. Cost, even if the federation doesn't have money there is still a cost to building a ship. Now the federation are already going to more expensive then their romulan or klingon counterparts do to the scientific instrumentation and the very long range capabilities they possess. The romulan and klingon ships have neither of these. Now one can imagine that you need lots of energy and some pretty exotic elements and components for a working model. Not to mention the model we see in TOS only covers visible light.

In other words these are expensive pieces of gear with serious tactical draw backs and adding these to your whole would seriously impact your ability to produce ships of the line. That ability that will determine the outcome of the war, where as cloaking your ships will going you the element of surprise, until they figure out how to detect and catch your entire fleet cloaked. How does adding a cloak contribute to a substantial increase in the cost of developing a ship? Although the physics is tricky, the cloak itself seems quite inexpensive. – Valorum Jul 7 '14 at 7:40 up vote 0 down vote From a military perspective, cloaking technology would be an enormous advantage for offensive, defensive and espionage purposes. No rational state would give it up willingly, and it was certainly within the Federation's technological capabilities to develop it. This means the Federation gave it up unwillingly. I speculate that the most plausible reason the treaty was signed is that the Federation saw the Romulans as an existential threat. They gave up major concessions to avert a war they viewed as unwinnable.

For reference, here's the relevant chronology: 2266: Kirk encounters Romulan cloaking technology, something previously "considered only theoretically possible, due to the enormous amount of power required." . The device is flawed, and still fairly easy to detect 2268: Romulans perfect the technology, and Kirk obtains a working cloaking device. The device can be run off the Enterprise's power generation capabilities (by 2269): Klingons have cloaking technology. 2286: The Federation obtains a functioning Klingon cloaking device in the events of Star Trek III and IV. 2293: The events of Star Trek VI take place. Praxis explodes, leading to peace overtures and the Khitomer Conference / Accords.

By this point the Klingons had developed an enhancement to cloaking technology, allowing them to fire while cloaked (this technology must have proved dangerous, or perhaps been banned in the Khitomer Accords, since it wasn't later used.) 2311: The Treaty of Algeron is signed after the "Tomed Incident", which "was a terrible confrontation between the United Federation of Planets and the Romulan Star Empire in 2311 that cost thousands of lives." . In one of the books, this was apparently a staged event by Star Fleet intelligence to avert a larger war. 2344: In the Battle of Narendra III, the Klingons are betrayed by the Romulans, and the Enterprise C aids them. This leads to an alliance between the Federation and the Klingons. Note that in the alternate timeline, a war with the Klingons takes place, which The Federation was badly losing by 2366. 2358: The USS Pegasus tries a test of dangerous "interphase" cloaking technology. Unlike ordinary cloaking, the technology allowed ships to be completely undetectable. 2368: The Romulans attempt a partially successful test of interphasic cloak.

They abandon the technology. 2370: The existence of that the Pegasus test is discovered and publicly revealed by Picard. 2371: An amendment to the Treaty of Algeron is made, which allows the USS Defiant to use a Romulan cloaking device while in the Gamma Quadrant. The device is subsequently used in the alpha quadrant on several occasions in violation of the treaty. 2372-73: The Klingons fight a major war with Cardassia. 2373: The Dominion War starts. 2373: Rom mines the entrance to the wormhole with cloaked mines. 2374: The Romulans are duped into joining the Dominion War by Sisko. 2375: The Dominion War ends. 2395: Date of the alternate timeline in "All Good Things...". In this timeline, the Federation regularly uses cloaking technology, presumably since the Klingons took over the Romulan empire, voiding the treaty. From the chronology above, you can reconstruct what the balance of power was over time. At the time the treaty was signed, the Klingons and Romulans had a nonaggression pact in place.

The Klingons had been severely weakened by the events at Praxis 18 years earlier, which had significantly shifted the balance of power in favor of the Romulans. Given that in the alternate "Enterprise C" timeline, the Klingons were still able to defeat the Federation, in 2311, the Federation must have been badly outgunned. Additionally, the excellence of Romulan cloaking technology would allow them to use execute genocidal weapons of mass destruction, say by mining the Terran system with cloaked mines or destroying all life on Earth. One can imagine that the Tomed Incident was such a terrorist attack by the Romulans. (Accepting the non-cannon book above, a terrorist attack orchestrated by Starfleet Intelligence, presumably Section 31. They must have realized how badly the Federation was outgunned, and sought to force hardliners to the negotiating table by showing Romulan military superiority, as the US did with Japan in 1945.) In this theory, the Romulans were afraid the Federation would become a military threat, and were willing to completely annihilate them (including their old enemies, the Vulcans) to prevent it.

The Federation was presumably presented with an ultimatum: "cease development of military technology we view as degrading our absolute military superiority to you, or we will conquer the Federation entirely." There were presumably territorial concessions made along the way as well. The Romulans would have felt safe doing this due to their nonaggression pact with the Klingons. No one would stand between the Romulans and domination of the Federation. Between the Treaty of Algeron and the end of DS9, the balance of power shifted. The Romulans became overconfident, and broke their nonaggression pact with the Klingons. This led to an alliance between the Klingons and the Federation, meaning that the Romulans no longer had absolute superiority. At this point, in the event of a war with the federation, they would be able to quickly outfit their ships with state-of-the-art Klingon cloaking devices, significantly reducing the Treaty's force. The treaty remained in place, preventing war in the short term, but the Federation began to seek ways of getting out from under its yoke. They developed gravimetric scanners, which meant that the Romulans would no longer be capable of executing a fully surprise attack.

They developed better weapons, to the point where their flagship was at least a match for a Romulan warbird. They were still outgunned, but not as badly as they had been. They attempted to develop cloaks so flawless they could run them without the Romulans knowing they were in violation of the treaty (interphasic cloak). Eventually, the war with the Dominion took precedence, and the Federation began using cloaking more openly, culminating in the cloaked mining of The Wormhole, a major violation of the treaty. The Romulans didn't care, since defeating the Dominion was a higher priority. That the Federation started using cloaking technology when they were more of an equal to the Romulans militarily is further support for this theory. The treaty existed because the Romulans could credibly claim to be able to force compliance on the Federation if needed. Once that superiority ended, the treaty started to crumble. up vote -2 down vote I dont really feel these answers so far are at all accurate. Cloaking could be employed in so.many defnsive situations, which is what brought me to ask myself the question op posed to begin with. Image in you had to pass by the borg?

Or a fleet of romulan vessels, etc etc. Conflict avoidance is often very important. Also as earlier stated by someone else, there can be anthropological applications. Plus in times of war, it could be invaluable. In addition, as far as production cost goes, its a fictional story! They could easily work in some reason as to how it could be afforded. The real reason, as far as I can tell is NOT any of the previously proposed reasons, but rather simply due to the fact that Star Trek is fiction. Those writing it probably wanted to create enemies that had some intimidating upperhand factors, in order to make things interesting. So they wrote in treaties, etc into the story that would offer some minor explanation, but honestly, the reasoning I have heard from the treaties and other fans seem quite fallible. In order to defend them they have to resort to reasoning that only recognizes half the facts. C'est domage up vote -3 down vote The Romulans broke off from the Vulcan Empire I believe. Back in the day the Vulcans were an overly passionate, strong emotioned destructive people. They almost destroyed themselves. until Surak who they considered the father of their ways, came up with logic.

Vulcan changed and some of the people did not agree. Spocks own half brother Sybok did not believe in logic. The people who left Vulcan found their own world and came up with their own ways. They eventually came to be known as the Romulan Star Empire. They retained their roots. And over time those roots have multiplied and became a race of beings similar to the Vulcans but instead of logic, they have the same drive that they are better and their ways are better. Romulans think they are the superior race. They do not mind lying to beings they consider to be less then they are. They are hypocrites. Hence forth a General mating with Tasha Yar. They are conniving, Even friends gained over the years, they wont hesitate to betray, like Spock and Pardak. Pardak knew Spock for 80 years, yet he betrayed him. As Spock accused him, he sat there in self righteousness, lying, till Sela came out and said the jig was up. Then when he left he simply said goodbye to Spock not even ashamed of being caught. What was the first contact we experienced with the Romulans?

They destroyed outposts purposely because they had superior firepower and a cloaking device. In that early episode their cloak was detected as they wandered through Federation space, and their weapons had a range limit. They came out to test this with the idea of starting war with the Federation. They were defeated. This ruined their plans for going to war with the Federation. The only theory I can come of up is because of their mistrustful nature they only would assume that the Federation would do the same thing they tried to do if they had cloaking technology. It's a given that 50 percent of the time at least people who do not trust anyone usually cannot be trusted. This is how the Romulans think. With cloaking technology the Federation would be a problem. The Federation usually wants peace, so when the Romulan Empire added that clause, and more than likely did not hide the fact that they did not trust the Federation, when the treaty was being made, the Federation did not pursue the technology and kept to the treaty so they would have nothing to worry about in Romulan Space.

We know parts of Starfleet Intelligence did in fact try to secretly develop a cloaking device in the 24th century, failing on the Pegasus, but working on the Enterprise. They were caught and charged, almost ruining Riker's career. So if the Federation did knowingly pursue the technology and the Romulans found out then it would be the Federation that broke the treaty and started the war in the eyes of the known universe. The Romulans always tried to look like they were righteous and the good guys and would not hesitate to kill their own people to keep that illusion, not to be the ones to start war, as they did in Unification when they destroyed their own ships heading to Vulcan. What it comes down to is that through their own actions the Romulans come off to most other races as sneaky, not to be trusted, stab you in the back beings that don't trust anyone. Cloak - Official Star Trek Online Wiki Cloak You might be looking for information on the abilities: Cloak , Battle Cloak , Romulan Battle Cloak or Enhanced Battle Cloak .

Cloaked Federation Galaxy Dreadnought Cloaking technology is a form of stealth used by races such as the Klingons and Romulans for their starships, as well as the Federation in a few of their higher Tier ships. Cloaks also are used by many others for smaller tasks like personal cloaks. In Star Trek Online cloaks are currently used by the Klingon Empire and Romulan Republic and it features on almost all Klingon vessels (a notable exception is the Vo'Quv Carrier , as well as ships from other races like the Gorn, Fek'Ihri, or Orions) and on all Romulan vessels . Federation cloaking devices are rarer, eppearing on the Federation Dreadnought Cruiser and the Tactical Escort Retrofit , along with the Tier 6 Intel vessels - though the Fleet Tactical Escort Retrofit , the Avenger Battle Cruiser and the Fleet Avenger Battle Cruiser can equip the Cloaking Device Console provided the player has it from one of the first two mentioned ships. The cloaking device is only usable when the ship is not engaged in combat except for most Birds-of-Prey and all Warbirds, which are capable of using their Battle Cloak to cloak whilst in combat.

In lieu of the Federation having such few ships with the ability to cloak, the Advanced Research Science Vessel and Advanced Research Science Vessel Retrofit do carry the means to detect cloaked ships with Tachyon Detection Field and Tachyon Detection Grid which can utilize the ship, as well as friendly ships in the area, respectively, to enhance this ability. Contents Cloaking device | Memory Beta, non-canon Star Trek Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Edit Cloaking devices were most commonly employed on starships, often for purposes of subterfuge, allowing a vessel to move unhindered by unaware opposition. However, cloaking devices were also been used for various other purposes to make best use of the technology. The power consumption of cloaking devices was often seen as a limiting factor, making even cloaking small starships difficult, however, with the correct technical expertise it was possible to cloak much larger objects. The planet Aldea was equipped with a cloaking device capable of making the entire planet invisible, though it did have the unfortunate side effect of damaging the planet's ozone layer , resulting in widespread radiation poisoning from the Aldean sun's ultraviolet rays, resulting in the Aldean race become sterile.

( TNG episode : " When the Bough Breaks ") Large scale cloaking was also used by the Sphere Builders to hide their spheres in the Delphic Expanse . ( ENT episodes : " Anomaly ", " Exile ") A cloaked Romulan minefield Personal cloaking devices were also been used by both states, in isolation suits by the Federation and cloaking bands by the Romulans. ( DS9 novel : Lesser Evil ; TNG video game : Away Team ) The process of deactivating the cloaking device and become visible was known as "de-cloaking." ( TNG episode : " Timescape ") History Cloaking technology existed in the galaxy for some time, however in the affairs of the major Alpha and Beta Quadrant powers the technology only started to come into use in the 22nd century . The 22nd century Edit Humans first encountered cloaking technology in confrontations with the Suliban Cabal who used the technology on their cell ships and stealth cruisers . After their initial encounters, the Enterprise was fitted with quantum beacons (provided by temporal agent Daniels ) capable of penetrating Suliban cloaks.

( ENT episode : " Shockwave ", et al.) The Enterprise encountered three other species who employed stealth technology (analogous to cloaking technology): The Xyrillians , who used it to hide out of fear rather than for great tactical advantage ( ENT episode : " Unexpected "), the Sphere Builders , and the Romulans . The Sphere Builders were an extra-dimensional race who used cloaking fields to hide their space transforming spheres in the Delphic Expanse . The spheres had been placed in the expanse approximately a thousand years ago and the Sphere Builders had temporal technologies so the origins of this particular type of cloak are as mysterious as those of the Suliban. ( ENT episodes : " Anomaly ", " Exile ") The Romulan's first, short lived, cloaking starship In 2152 the Enterprise stumbled into a cloaked Romulan mine field. By using the quantum beacons they could successfully detect the mines but not the two birds-of-prey in the area.

This encounter was a one off though, Romulan stealth technology was still very much in its infancy, the cloaked mines were considered a relative success but the power requirements for cloaking a whole ship were problematic; sometime after the encounter with the Enterprise, the prototype cloaking ship Praetor Pontilus was destroyed in an antimatter containment failure caused by its stealth systems. It would be decades until a successful system could be developed. ( ENT episode : " Minefield "; ENT novel : The Good That Men Do ) An arms race Edit The Romulans finally developed a successful cloaking system by 2266 , which they tested on a next generation bird-of-prey , that they dubbed a ghost ship , in raids against Federation outposts along the neutral zone. ( TOS episode : " Balance of Terror "; TOS comic : " Alien Spotlight: Romulans ") The new Romulan cloak used so much power it precluded the use of weaponry and warp drive and the USS Enterprise was able to track it. However it could still be considered a success and the Romulans quickly advanced the design to make its use more practical.

( TOS episode : " Balance of Terror ") While the Romulans were developing their new device Klingon agents became aware of it and the Klingon operative Korlat was sent to begin talks with the Romulans to make an alliance between the two powers, with the Klingons hoping to gain access to the technology in the process. The alliance was agreed upon by the power-hungry new praetor, though other parts of the Romulan government saw other advantages in the alliance, such as "containing" the Cardassians . ( TOS comic : " Alien Spotlight: Romulans "; DS9 novel : A Stitch in Time ) As they hoped the Klingons did receive cloaking technology in the alliance, while the Romulans were given Klingon starships. ( TOS episode : " The Enterprise Incident "; et al.) With two enemy states using cloaking technology, the Federation was keen to find ways to detect cloaked vessels to the extent that they even stole a Romulan cloaking device from a Romulan battlecruiser in 2268 .

( TOS episode : " The Enterprise Incident ") Cloaked Klingon ship firing torpedo Over the next few decades the Federation learned to detect sensor blips associated with cloaks; in return, cloaking technology advanced. In 2293 the Klingons successfully modified a bird-of-prey to be able to fire weapons while cloaked. Captain Kirk and his crew eventually defeated this vessel by using a specially modified torpedo which tracked the ships plasma exhausts. ( TOS movie : Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country ) For a significant period of time Dr Scott Heisenberg was credited for single-handedly refining Starfleet's sensors to detect Romulan cloaking devices. However this period came to an end when the Romulans retreated behind their borders following the Tomed Incident. ( TLE novel : Catalyst of Sorrows ) By the 24th century cloak detection was becoming commonplace; Federation borders used gravimetric sensor nets and interphase scanners. The Romulans countered this by improving their interphase generators. In 2368 the USS Enterprise-D 's chief engineer Geordi La Forge developed a more advanced technique, the tachyon detection grid , using tachyon beams transmitted between different locations to expose cloaked vessels.

( TNG episode : " Redemption ") The Dominion and Cardassians used antiproton beams to locate cloaked ships. ( DS9 episode : " Defiant ") By 2379 , the latest iteration of the cloak had overcome all these problems. The Warbird Scimitar 's cloak did not give off any tachyon emissions or residual antiprotons, making it undetectable. In addition, the Scimitar could maintain shields and fire through its cloak. The Scimitar was only stopped by the heroic efforts of the USS Enterprise-E 's crew, in particular Commander Data , who sacrificed himself to destroy the Warbird. ( TNG movie : Star Trek Nemesis ) In 2382 , when a Romulan vessel managed to penetrate the Mars Defense Perimeter to retrieve an operative at Utopia Planitia , Admiral Alynna Nechayev suspected from sensor scans that the Romulans were seemingly putting phase cloaks in active service. ( ST novel : Zero Sum Game ) In 2387 , while being modified at the Vault , the Romulan mining vessel Narada was equipped with a cloaking device which allowed it to fire through the cloak.

Upon observing this ability, General Worf of the Klingon Defense Force said that the Romulans "must have stolen that trick from us!" ( ST - Countdown comic : " Number Four ") Later development Edit In an alternate future created by the formation of the Red wormhole (which started the War of the Prophets ), by 2400 the Romulan Star Empire had developed a more advanced effective cloak known as a transmorphic cloaking device , which used biogenic components obtained from Grigari technology. These transmorphic cloaks made the ships virtually undetectable. This future timeline was erased by the crew of the USS Defiant . ( DS9 novel : The War of the Prophets ) The novel does not specify how transmorphic cloaks differed functionally from standard cloaking devices. The Federation and cloaking technology Edit Under the Treaty of Algeron , the Federation was banned from using cloaking technology without the explicit permission of the Romulans. However, before and throughout the 24th century , the Federation was active in the development of cloaking technology but did not implement it in the fleet.

( TNG novel : Resistance ) During the USS Enterprise 's pursuit of Lieutenant Saavik while she was undergoing Pon faar , Admiral James T. Kirk orders Montgomery Scott to "...activate cloaking device..." and later, to "...disengage cloaking device..." Scott also warns, "We've not enough power t'use this cloakin' device much longer!" No other mention is made of the device, or its origin. ( TOS comic : " Blood Fever ") The Federation also secretly developed an interphase cloaking device in 2358 . However, the test ship for the device, the USS Pegasus , was lost. The Pegasus was rediscovered in an asteroid field in 2370 , where the USS Enterprise-D recovered and used the interphase cloak before making its existence known to a Romulan Warbird in the vicinity. ( TNG episode : " The Pegasus ") The Federation occasionally circumvented the Treaty of Algeron by enlisting the aid of cloak-enabled Klingon ships in certain operations.

( TNG episodes : " The Defector ", " Unification ") Both incarnations of the Defiant-class ships Defiant were fitted with Romulan cloaking devices, under special arrangement with the Romulans that the cloak only be used in the Gamma Quadrant , and that Starfleet share all intelligence thus gathered with the Romulans. Such restrictions, however, did not prevent occasional unauthorized use of the cloak by Defiant commanders Benjamin Sisko and Elias Vaughn . ( DS9 episode : " The Search "; DS9 novel : Twilight , et al.) Following the Dominion War the Romulan Senate moved to allow the Defiant to keep the cloak, recognizing the importance of the vessel, and DS9, as the first line of defense against further Dominion attacks. ( DS9 novel : Avatar, Book One ) A damaged Isolation suit decloaking The Ba'ku duck-blind mission also made use of small scale cloaks in isolation suits . ( TNG movie : Star Trek: Insurrection ; DS9 novel : Lesser Evil ) The use cloaks in isolation suits may suggest the Treaty of Algernon cloaking ban only applies to larger scale employment on starships and facilities.

In 2380 , the USS Titan deployed a cloak on a shuttle during operations undertaken at the behest of the Romulan government. ( TTN novel : Taking Wing ) Throughout the 2370s , the Federation encrypted the means of cloaking in the computers of all new starships so that it would be available to Federation vessel in cases of extreme need, although the data could only be accessed with the access codes of an admiral. In 2380 , the USS Enterprise-E was authorized by Admiral Kathryn Janeway to use this data to cloak the ship for a sneak attack on a Borg cube . At the time the Federation was also reconsidering its relationship with the then-shattered and unstable Romulan Empire and the restrictions of the Treaty of Algeron. ( TNG novel : Resistance ) On Stardate 72487.91, the USS Kelso was destroyed when an experimental cloaking device was destroyed due to a coolant leak. The outrage from both the shattered Romulan Star Empire and the Klingon Empire lead to President Okeg to outright ban cloaking.

( ST website : The Path to 2409 ) However, the existence of both the Defiant-class and the Galaxy-X-class seemed to hint otherwise. ( Star Trek Online ) In the Delta Quadrant The Voth and Srivani made use of interphase cloaking devices . ( VOY episodes : " Distant Origin ", " Scientific Method ") It is also worthy of note that the Borg , in their thousands of years of existence and many recorded encounters with cloak capable species, must have at some point assimilated cloaking technology. Though to date they have not been depicted using the technology. It is possible that with their general technological superiority, the Borg Queen sees no need to 'sneak around' to assimilate others. In alternate realities Edit In the Kelvin timeline the Romulan Star Empire had cloaking technology in wide use by the 2250s . Centurion-class , Cetratus-class , Gladius-class , Patronus-class and Securis-class starships could all be fitted with cloaking devices. At this time the Romulans had to drop their cloaks to fire weaponry. ( TOS video game : D-A-C ) It was also revealed that some Gorn had personal cloaking ability.

( TOS video game : Star Trek ) In an alternate timeline where Montgomery Scott went back in time to rescue James T. Kirk before his absorption into the Nexus , the Cardassians had developed cloaking technology. Former Alliance Council member Zarcot issued a distress call from a lifepod close to the Nexus in an attempt to get the Wisdom to lower its shields so that a cloaked Cardassian vessel could assassinate the Supreme Arbiter of the Alliance Sarek , who was aboard the ship. ( Star Trek novel : Engines of Destiny ) In the mirror universe Edit ISS Enterprise cloaking In the mirror universe cloaks were also used by the Suliban in the 22nd century. The ISS Enterprise (NX-01) used a Suliban cloaking devise from a captured cell ship to enter Tholian space in 2155 . The Enterprise was able to use weapons through the cloak. ( ENT episode : " In a Mirror, Darkly ") In the 23rd century the Klingons, like their regular universe counterparts, developed a cloak which could be fired through. They planned to use a fleet of these vessels to attack the Terran Empire . However, the fleet in construction was destroyed when Praxis exploded.

( TOS novel : The Sorrows of Empire ) The Klingon-Cardassian Alliance of the 24th century also had cloaking technology used on number of ships. However, in 2375 the Alliance kidnapped the regular universe Grand Nagus Zek to blackmail Quark into stealing a Klingon cloaking device from a regular universe vessel. ( DS9 episode : " The Emperor's New Cloak ") This was either a slightly different mirror universe (several variations of the mirror universe have been established) or just as in the regular universe cloaks and sensors had advanced to a point where a new type of cloak was required. Variations on cloaking technology See main article: Interphase cloaking device . Decloaking Enterprise-D Along side the development of standard cloaks all three of the major powers experimented in the development of interphasic cloaks. An interphasic cloak will not just make the target invisible but also capable of passing through solid materials. The Federation was successful in developing the technology in 2358 though that fact was unknown to them for some time when the test ship for the device the USS Pegasus was lost.

The Pegasus was rediscovered in an asteroid field in 2370 where the Enterprise-D recovered and used the interphase cloak before making its existence known to a Romulan Warbird in the vicinity. ( TNG episode : " The Pegasus ") The Klingons also tried and failed to develop their own phase cloak, as did the Romulans. The Klingons abandoned their attempts while the Romulans' initially failed. By 2376 , the Romulans had succeeded and implemented phase cloaks in Tal Shiar Shadow-class vessels. ( TNG episode : " The Next Phase "; TNG video game : Armada ) Dark Matter cloaks Edit A new form of cloaking technology was developed by the Romulan Star Empire in 2356 with the aid of the rogue Shepherd Ambassador Lhiau . This form of cloak was undetectable by normal means and was capable of firing when cloaked. This was available to at least thirteen Romulan warbirds which were interfaced with advanced Shepherd technology. There were numerous complications with this form of cloaking as it produced a mutated strain of Dark matter that infected the crew causing madness as well as death.

( VOY novel : Cloak and Dagger ) This brought about an end to this program which was discontinued considering the dangers of dark matter. ( VOY novel : Shadow of Heaven ) Transmorphic cloaks Edit A new form of cloaking was created by the New Romulan Star Empire in the alternate future produced by the War of the Prophets . This technology was virtually undetectable by its enemies but was only possible through the addition of Grigari organic components. ( DS9 novel : The War of the Prophets ) Phasing cloaking device | Memory Alpha | Fandom powered by Wikia Share The Federation phasing cloak The phasing cloaking device, was an experimental technology developed by a secret group in Starfleet Security in the 2350s . An expansion on the more traditional cloaking device , it was designed to phase sequence the structure of matter and energy to such a rate that it was possible to allow any vessel utilizing the device to pass through normal matter in the phased state. A direct violation of the Treaty of Algeron , which banned cloaking technology aboard Federation starships , the phasing cloak was first tested aboard the USS Pegasus in 2358 , under the command of Captain Erik Pressman .

In response to the illegal use of this device, the crew of the Pegasus mutinied against Pressman, forcing Pressman and a small group of officers who sided with him, including a young Ensign Will Riker , to flee the ship. Afterwards, the Pegasus drifted into an asteroid field in the Devolin system while still in a phased state. The cloak blew out the plasma relays aboard the ship, and when it passed through a particularly large asteroid, the cloak failed, causing the Pegasus to partially materialize inside solid rock. The crew dead, the Pegasus remained entombed in the asteroid for the next twelve years. A Judge Advocate General 's investigation into the mutiny was initiated, but, in order to conceal the illegal test, Starfleet Intelligence classified the file. The USS Enterprise-D deactivating its phasing cloak in front of a Romulan Warbird In 2370 Pressman, now an admiral at Starfleet Intelligence, boarded the USS Enterprise-D and mounted a mission to retrieve the phasing cloak. It had been determined that the Romulans had learned about the cloaking device and were attempting to retrieve it themselves, and Pressman was determined not to let it fall into their hands.

The Pegasus was eventually located and the device retrieved, but not before a Romulan Warbird sealed the Enterprise inside the asteroid. Deciding not to continue to aid Pressman in the illegal activity, Riker, by this point the Enterprise's first officer , revealed the existence of the cloaking device to Captain Picard , and suggested using it to phase the Enterprise and pass through the surface of the asteroid. The plan worked, and Picard ordered the Enterprise to decloak in front of the Warbird , thereby revealing the existence of the phasing cloak to the Romulans. Both Admiral Pressman and Commander Riker were subsequently taken into custody for their respective roles in the illegal experiment. ( ENT : " These Are the Voyages... "; TNG : " The Pegasus ") Only the terms "phasing cloak" and "prototype Federation cloaking device" have been used of this device in canon and background sources such as the Star Trek Encyclopedia . Other similar phasing technology Cloaking device - Imperial Wiki Cloaking device Jump to: navigation , search A cloaking device is a form of stealth technology that uses selective bending of light (and other forms of energy) to render a starship or other object completely invisible to the electromagnetic spectrum and most sensors.

Contents 6 Notes Realism Active cloaking devices are fundamentally unrealistic - if a ship bent light around itself, it could not be seen, but it would also be blind. The same would apply to other methods of detection; if the ship avoids those signals, then it can't receive those signals, either. If a cloak somehow "traps" sensor pulses, it will accumulate heat. This problem is worsened by the need to trap waste heat from the ship's own power supplies. A cloaked ship using the gigawatt-range power supplies typical of science fiction starships would cook its crew in short order. Cloaking Devices in Star Trek Nature A cloaking device manipulates a starship's shields [1] to bend light around the starship, making it effectively invisible. Advanced cloaks affect high-tech sensor emissions similarly, making the the ship invisible to many other forms of detection, as well. The purpose of a cloak is to prevent detection before combat and when fleeing combat, and cloaking devices have been able to hide vessels from all but the most advanced scanners and tracking systems. Cloaking devices are usually used for stealth, and their combat use is usually limited to moving into position for an ambush.

For example, the early cloaking device was a perfect supplement to the Romulan plasma weapon , allowing the Bird of Prey to approach as close as possible to deploy the limited-range weapon for maximum effectiveness. The early cloaks were proprietary technology of the Romulans. In the first recorded instance of military use of a cloaking device against a Starfleet vessel, the cloaked Romulan vessel was completely invisible to visible light and targeting scanners, but she could still be detected with subspace motion sensors and was tracked in this manner by the Enterprise throughout the engagement near the Neutral Zone . This form of tracking proved poor for targeting and precision movement, forcing Captain Kirk to lay down a pattern of weapon fire in hopes of catching his target. [2] Later, as part of an ongoing technology-sharing program, the Klingons gained cloaking technology and Romulans abandoned their existing warbird design in favor of Klingon designs like the D-7 . [3] Klingons began using cloaking devices on their own Bird of Prey designs, as seen in the Genesis incident when Kruge's Bird of Prey penetrated deep into Federation space, destroying the USS Grissom and ambushing the Enterprise utilizing the cloaking device.

[4] The performance characteristics of cloaking devices have changed over time. For instance, the Klingon cloaking device in ST3 created a visible distortion effect when the ship was in motion, but it successfully hid the ship from all other forms of detection. As seen in the TNG era and onward, the cloaking devices available to the Klingons and Romulans have grown much more sophisticated. Klingons cloaks are so advanced that even when cloaking and decloaking within several kilometers of Deep Space Nine , the sensor suites could not accurately track the Klingon vessels [5] . Romulan Warbirds were also able to approach the station completely unseen and decloak within several kilometers, despite the station being at battle stations, with a Klingon fleet and Federation vessels all within range and expecting a Dominion attack. [6] One of the most recent evolutions of cloaking technology was seen twice, once by Klingon design and another by the Romulans. General Chang of the Klingon Empire utilized a Bird of Prey that could fire while cloaked, a notorious limitation of most cloaking devices. This Bird of Prey was destroyed over Khitomer and was the only known proto-type.

We have not seen a cloaked Klingon ship accomplish this since. The cloaking device used on the Scimitar also allowed the vessel to fire while cloaked and was used with devastating effectiveness against the Enterprise-E . This may be the natural progression of the device should greater enhancements be made in the future, but advances in sensor technology may defeat this cloaking system, as apparently occurred with Chang's now-obsolete cloak. Cloaking Device Politics The Federation is banned from developing cloaking devices by the Treaty of Algeron with the Romulan Empire. The circumstances under which the Federation agreed to hamstring itself by not developing this technology are unknown. Despite the ban, the Federation did produce one illegal cloaking device - one that is a quantum leap ahead of anything produced by either the Romulans or the Klingons - a phase cloak that allows a vessel to pass through solid matter. Limitations A cloaked Bird of Prey visible to the naked eye Cloaking devices have high power requirements. Consequently, depending on their power sources, cloaked vessels are usually weakly shielded, if shielded at all. Similarly, cloaked ships have relatively little power available for their weapon systems.

The initial Romulan cloaking device was so power intensive that it nearly drained the energy reserves of the Romulan Bird of Prey during its battle with the Enterprise in "Balance of Terror". One can speculate that the primary reason a typical cloaked vessel cannot fire while cloaked is that too much power is required for maintaining the cloak to properly power the weapons systems. This is hinted at when Captain Kruge warns his ship's gunner to transfer power to the weapons "at my command," perhaps concerned that power would be transfered too soon, thus compromising the cloak. [7] Because cloaking devices are integrated into a ship's shield systems, cloaking and decloaking usually creates a window of vulnerability in which shields are not functional; Commander Riker exploited such a weakness in Star Trek: Generations to destroy a Klingon Bird of Prey . Romulan officers do not consider their cloaking technology sufficient to bypass the prepared defenses at the Federation border. [8] A cloaking device can be defeated using a tachyon net ; a cloaked ship trying to pass through the net will still interrupt one of the tachyon beams being transmitted among the ships participating in the net, revealing its location.

The Scimitar in Star Trek: Nemesis was shielded while cloaked. Worf was eventually able to target the Scimitar based on weapons fire and disable its cloak. In certain rare instances, cloaked vessels have been spotted by the naked eye, such as in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, or the external visuals in Star Trek: Nemesis. Realism Cloaking, as described in Star Trek, has all of the realism issues described at the beginning of this article. Dumping waste energy into subspace won't solve the problem, since Star Trek ships have subspace sensors that would be expected to detect such emissions, foiling the cloak. Cloaking Devices in Star Wars Cloaking devices have occasionally been mentioned in the Star Wars movies, but never actually seen in operation. In Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back , when the ISD Avenger loses track of the Millennium Falcon , Captain Needa questions the possibility that his target engaged a cloaking device because a ship that small shouldn't have one. In Star Wars: The Phantom Menace , Qui-Gon Jinn asks if Queen Amidala's yacht has a cloaking device, but Captain Panaka informs him that it does not.

In the Heir to the Empire series of novels by Timothy Zahn , Grand Admiral Thrawn employs cloaking devices in several ways. According to these novels, a ship can avoid detection with a cloaking device, but the cloaked ship is also completely blind, limiting the usefulness of the device. In Star Wars: The Clone Wars , the second-season episode "Cat and Mouse" shows a prototype cloaking device. This cloak made the ship invisible to normal sight and most sensors. There was a distinct shimmering effect when engaging or disengaging the cloak. This cloak allowed a trace amount of "magnetic energy" to escape, which eventually allowed the cloaked ship to be tracked by enemy missiles. Unlike the devices used in Heir to the Empire, this cloak was not "double-blind", thus possibly explaining the leakage and its status as an important, cutting-edge prototype. Realism While not much more realistic than cloaks from other settings, the "double-blind" aspect of Star Wars cloaks is a slight improvement in realism over cloaks that allow a ship to hide from sight and sensors without experiencing any limitations on its own sensor capacity.

The "magnetic energy" leakage of the device from The Clone Wars also improves realism: if the ship is absorbing enough energy to see, it needs to release a similar amount to avoid heating up. Cloaking Devices in Stargate The Goa'uld posses some level of cloaking technology which can be used on both a human scale as well as on the scale of small spacecraft such as Al'kesh and Tel'taks . For the most part cloaking devices on the scale of capital ships such as Ha'tak are beyond the technical capacity of the Goa'uld, with the notable exception of that of Sokar's realm. Puddle Jumpers are also equipped with cloaking devices which can be interfaced with Atlantis' shields. In late 2006, Daniel Jackson gave the USAF Odyssey the ability to cloak. The Asurans also fielded cloaking device on their warships. See Also ↑ DS9 "Way of the Warrior" ↑ DS9 "By Inferno's Light"

Question: Which race had a cloaking device in Star Trek?
Answer: Romulans.